The Web’s cacophony of anti-ACA sentiment

Anger is contagious on social media, and it has been easier to use Twitter and Facebook to stoke opposition to Obamacare than to implore people to sign up. Social media experts say supporters of the president’s health law just haven’t been as effective as the seething anti-Obamacare forces in getting out sharp, clear messages.

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The online war of words could play a role in enrollment for 2014: The deadline is March 31.

“We’re rapidly reaching the tipping point where social media opinion will simply be ‘public opinion,’” said Rob Key, CEO of the social strategy company Converseon. “A relatively small percentage of the population helps influence the agenda and opinions of the rest of the society. Social media is now providing these key influencers a supercharged pulpit to influence others exponentially … in ways not possible even just two years ago.”

Hard data back this up. In fact, the messaging field isn’t even close to level.

In analyzing emotion-laden words used in connection with the health law over the past year, the social media analytics firm NetBase Solutions found that words or terms like disaster, hate, blame, not want and not like were used 60 percent more than words like good, love, great, best and like.

And the momentum is no accident. The House GOP strategically includes social media tips in its messaging playbook, urging members to use #brokenpromises as well as #fairnessforall in tweets about the law. The guide suggests using Facebook, Twitter and Instagram posts to link to graphics, photos and videos illustrating how Americans have been hurt by Obamacare.

“The administration has allowed the crowd to control the message, and I would argue the Republican side — at least from a volume perspective — is much more vocal than the blue side,” said Malcolm De Leo of NetBase.

Numerous polls have shown much of the American public remains down on the health law or ignorant about key components — and that includes people who could get help getting covered. The Obama administration needs to sway public opinion toward the law in order to get millions more Americans signed up by the end of next month and to soften opposition before the 2014 elections. Reaching out through the Internet — through blog postings, videos, direct appeals and more — could make a difference, particularly with young adults who are not yet enrolling in the numbers the health plans require.

The White House characterizes the most vitriolic social media conversations as just hot air, involving people they are never going to win over anyway. Officials involved in Obamacare enrollment efforts say that what’s important on social media is not driving a broad, overarching message, but rather highlighting stories of people who have acquired coverage for the first time.

Yet those stories are competing in the cacophony of cyberspace. Take a look at how online participants talk about the law — with hashtags from #obamacareisworking to #defundobamacare and tweets alternatively pleading with people to enroll or blaming the law for all sorts of social and economic woes. Images also come into play via Instagram, with one of the most widely circulated showing actress Nina Dobrev, topless, with a well-positioned sign reading #getcovered.

It’s not surprising that opponents have taken the upper hand whenever Obamacare — or #Obamacare — is invoked. Although the label is now a synonym for the Affordable Care Act, it carries far worse connotations among the general public — which makes it the term of choice for those who dislike the law.

But the anti-Obamacare crowd is also ahead in conversation around neutral language. In December, Converseon found, 33 percent of “ACA” mentions on Twitter were negative, compared to 26 percent that were positive.

The administration and its allies are fighting back. The White House launched a Tumblr called whathasobamacaredoneformelately that features good-news tales from newly insured Americans, in addition to enlisting celebrities and athletes to record videos touting enrollment or tweet on Obamacare’s behalf.

Obama’s political arm, Organizing for Action, released a 2½-minute Web video Friday featuring a Chicago couple who said that, through Obamacare, they had acquired health insurance for the first time in years.

“We will continue to urge Americans to get covered, and continue working with partners ranging from Magic Johnson to local community groups to get the word out,” a senior administration official said.